STEVEN: “... Elias, just recently, last Wednesday, I created this thickness in my energy, and there were occasions where, not having been frequent, but occasions when there was a day of feeling this very tremendous thick energy and not being (inaudible). Obviously, I was generating it.

ELIAS: Yes.

STEVEN: Well, it was peculiar that I wasn’t able to turn it or to redirect the energy.

ELIAS: It is not necessarily peculiar. I may express to you that this type of experience is being expressed with many individuals in this time framework, for this is addressing to truths. For as I have expressed previously, these truths are not being presented intellectually but experientially.

Now; let me also express to you that at times individuals may be generating certain experiences in an attempt to be recognizing some of their truths, but their truths have become so familiar that they become an ongoing expression that is not noticed. It is being expressed continuously, but it has been generated for such an ongoing time framework that the individual, such as yourself, does not notice that it is being expressed. In a manner of speaking, it is similar to an individual that generates a particular expression of physical tension, and in generating that tension for an ongoing time framework, perhaps years, the individual no longer notices and does not even actually feel that physical tension, for it has become so very familiar that it merely is. And the physical...

STEVEN: I create in a similar manner, in some respects?

ELIAS: Yes. For this element of comparison within you has become so familiar that for the most part you do not recognize that you are even generating that comparison. Also, you generate an anxiety in a doubt of yourself and of your ability to actually generate what you want. You also generate an anxiety associated with a fear of not allowing yourself to accomplish or not incorporating the ability to accomplish, therefore the fear of both succeeding and the responsibility of success, and of failure and the discounting of failure, and how you shall be perceived by other individuals if you are not accomplishing. Therefore, there is also a factor of approval.

STEVEN: I’ve noticed that especially from certain family members.

ELIAS: There is also a comparison of creativity in association with family, and a measurement of yourself as not measuring as valuable as other individuals.

This comparison element is ongoing and is very influencing, for as you continue to compare and are not even noticing, you are generating automatic responses, and those automatic responses are associated with discounting yourself. As you continue to express in that manner, you do not allow yourself the freedom of your own creative expression, allowing that to bloom and allowing yourself to express that in a successful manner.

Even within this now, as I inquire of you what are you doing, you express to myself, ‘I am speaking with you.’ Yes, you are, but what are you also doing? You are generating signals. What are those signals? Anxiety and tension. And what is the message associated with those signals? That you are apprehensive; you are doubting of yourself; you are doubting even within your conversation with myself that there may be a potential or a possibility that I also shall discount you and shall reflect your energy to you as you are accustomed to.

That is all associated with what you are NOT doing, which is what you are doing. What you are not doing is not allowing yourself to fully express your own creativity without comparison and without expectations.

STEVEN: I see. I didn’t realize that comparison was such an influencing element.

ELIAS: It is STRONGLY influencing.

STEVEN: In terms of comparing myself with what others have accomplished or what they possess, is that it?

ELIAS: Partially, and comparing with what is successful and what is not, comparing abilities and what classifies abilities and creativity as good enough and what is not good enough, comparing how often you engage your craft and how often it SHOULD be engaged, that if you are successful, you must be devoting certain quantities of time in the development and the practice of your craft, and if you are not, you are not generating in a successful manner, and therefore, you are not good enough at expressing your craft. There are many, many, many comparisons that you generate.

STEVEN: I wasn’t aware. Oh, my goodness! This is quite enlightening.

ELIAS: There are also comparisons in association with money, and that other individuals generate this more successfully than do you. This action of comparing has become so very automatic and so consistent that it moves in every aspect of your focus. Every direction that you move within, or that you do not allow yourself to move within, is influenced by this comparing.

STEVEN: My goodness. What can I do, then, to alleviate this comparison?

ELIAS: First of all, I shall express to you an exercise that you may incorporate for a time framework of one week. Within this one week, in each day, notice and document each time you are generating any type of comparison in any manner in association with any subject.

Now; initially within your initial days, you may experience some challenge with that, for as I have expressed, this has become automatic, and automatic responses are challenging to notice. But if you are genuinely engaging this action, you shall begin in increments to notice more and more, and you shall begin to notice more frequently how very often you are generating this action of comparing. It matters not whether you view the comparison to be significant or insignificant. It is important that you merely notice.

Now; in this noticing, do not discount yourself and do not necessarily attempt to change what you are doing. That is not the point of this exercise. The point of this exercise is to allow yourself to become aware.

Now; as you are noticing each moment that you are generating some type of comparison, as you continue with the exercise and you begin to generate more noticing, at that point I suggest to you that as you notice each comparison, attempt to allow yourself to identify one effect of how that comparing hinders you or restricts you. For this also shall allow you to be more aware of what you are actually doing, and as I expressed previously, many times what you are doing is not doing.

STEVEN: Is not doing?

ELIAS: Correct. If you are NOT engaging an action, you are preventing, and that is an action also, and that is an action of doing.

STEVEN: (Laughs) I understand.

ELIAS: You are...

STEVEN: I believe I do. I did want to ask you about the nature of doing and not doing, and perhaps whether if you’re not doing something then it won’t... You know, that a physical action must be taken in order for a desired want to be achieved. Are you understanding what I’m saying?

ELIAS: Yes, I am understanding. And in a manner of speaking, yes, you are correct. But it is not as black and white as you perceive it to be, for many times individuals do not actually recognize that they are incorporating an actual action in what they perceive to be a nonaction.

As an example in association with money, an individual may be incorporating a certain amount of money and perceive themselves to not be doing any action with that money. It may be set in a box. Therefore, it is being kept in the box, and the individual may express to themselves that the money is in the box and they are not physically doing any action with the money. That not doing is also a doing. They are incorporating the action, the doing, of keeping the money in the box, but that does not appear to be an action surfacely.

This is what I am expressing, to allow yourself to move beyond the surface and genuinely evaluate what you are doing in what appears to be a non-doing. In that, as you begin to recognize what you are doing in that manner, this allows you to evaluate what motivates what you are doing, as in the situation with the money in the box and the individual that is incorporating the doing of keeping the money in the box.

Once recognizing that, the individual may evaluate what is motivating that action of keeping the money in the box. Perhaps it is a fear that if the individual incorporates a different type of doing with the money that this will deplete what they have, and therefore also perhaps diminish what they generate. Therefore, if they continue doing, keeping the money in the box, there is a sense of safety, for there is a knowing of what they have.

This is also significant, for in this exercise, these types of elements of your reality shall also begin to become more clear. Individuals many, many times do not recognize what they have and do not appreciate what they HAVE generated, what they HAVE accomplished, for they are too very busy paying attention to what they perceive they do not have.

STEVEN: I understand. I’m certain that I incorporate that to a degree. It’s just that I have these abilities... But no, you pointed it out very eloquently, actually. There is this part of me that says I have these abilities of music and all of this, and I am quite genuinely... I don’t hold as much appreciation as I suppose I quote/unquote should. Where I’ve moved in the Shift I think has been significant, but I was not aware of my comparison, of my automatic association with comparisons.

ELIAS: Let me also express to you, within this time framework that you may be engaging this exercise, attempt in different moments to allow yourself somewhat small increments of time in which you engage your music freely with no expectation, with no comparison, and merely allow yourself to incorporate a brief time framework in which you allow an entirely free flow of energy.

In that, DO NOT COMPARE with the time frameworks in which you are not allowing that, but merely allow yourself to notice how your energy feels in those moments and how you feel in that flow. For in that flow, that is a time framework in which you objectively allow an expression of being aware of a subjective movement.”[session 1620, September 07, 2004]